Semitransparent solar cells are desirable for aesthetic and practical design reasons including applications in architectural glass, multi junction photovoltaic devices, wearable and other consumer electronic applications, etc.
Traditional solar cells are opaque and even conventional solar materials which can be made semitransparent typically employ a metal back electrode which blocks light. Neither options prove viable for semitransparent solar cell applications.
Some examples of semitransparent solar cells exist such as amorphous silicon and organic solar cells. See, for example, Ablayev et al., “Semitransparent solar modules based on amorphous and microcrystalline silicon,” Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 572 (December 2014) (amorphous silicon solar cells) and U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2012/0186623 by Bulovic et al., entitled “Transparent Photovoltaic Cells” (organic solar cells). These designs however suffer from either light-induced degradation or long-term stability issues.
Therefore, an improved semitransparent solar cell design would be desirable.